No school focused on sustainability would confine their lessons to the classroom, but at UWCSEA our entire campuses have been co-opted into providing students of all ages real-life learning opportunities linked to the UWC mission.

Broader than a single subject, peace education at UWCSEA aims to instil a deep understanding of what peace is, the different ways peace can be achieved, and to embed peace throughout a wide range of learning opportunities.

“Peace education is what we do and how we do it, not just what children learn,“ explains Ellie Alchin, Director of Teaching
and Learning at UWCSEA Dover. “Peacebuilding is not a standalone curriculum because it fits into so many different areas
of the school. There are elements of peace education in the personal and social education curriculum, there are conceptual understandings relating to peace in the humanities curriculum. It’s explicitly taught in global citizenship and global politics, and in IB and (i)GCSE history. It’s also built into the service curriculum, and anywhere that students learn about sustainability.”

At UWCSEA, peacebuilding is something that is explicitly taught and considered to be critical to the foundations of a healthy community and society. It is an act of service, but it is also considered to be a core understanding and disposition that helps people achieve peace personally and in complex, real-world situations.

Nick Alchin took up the role as Head of UWCSEA East in January 2021. One year into his appointment, the East Campus community will be familiar with his name—hundreds of emails have been sent in his name as we navigate the pandemic—but many will not yet have had a chance to meet the passionate educator.

Although always an implicit part of the school’s approach to education, the concept of sustainability as a goal was named in the UWC mission around twenty years ago, as the science and understanding of the extent of the world’s environmental challenges grew and as the economic consequences of rising inequality became apparent. These dual challenges both threatened the UWC movement’s ultimate goal of promoting peace through the education of young people who are inspired and equipped to take on the responsibility of building healthy societies. Over subsequent years, the case to incorporate sustainability into the education at the College as a more explicit aim has become even more compelling.